She revealed in her first autobiography, Past Imperfect, published in 1978, that she was drugged and raped when she was a teenager and a virgin by the Irish actor Maxwell Reed.

She later married Reed in 1952, adding ‘which I know is hard to understand’, before divorcing him four years later.

American Horror Story (Credit: Fox)

“So when people ask why I wasn’t speaking out about this – I’ve been speaking out about it for 40 years,” she told the newspaper, adding that she would never have attended a meeting with a producer in a hotel room.

“It seems to me actresses who are saying, you know, ‘I went up to this producer and he took his dick out and I froze.’

“I just gave them a knee in the groin. It’s hardly suffering. You just didn’t put up with it.”

Collins, who recently appeared in the latest series of American Horror Story, also spoke about the seeming lack of action being taken in the #MeToo movement, via her own daughter’s experiences working for women’s shelters.

“My daughter Tara is a pioneer for women’s rights,” Collins says.

“These women in the refuges are having to hide their identities. They’ve got children and babies and then the husbands try to find them.

“I remember Tara was crying to me about a year and a half ago because one of the women had gone back and been murdered — that’s what happens.

“Women are abused all over the world. Everybody’s very adamant and strong and #MeToo here in Hollywood, but I don’t see them opening refuges for women who have been abused.”